A rebirth of the series!
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance continues the story with 2 powerful but fallen sorcerers, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung teaming up to accomplish what they had failed to previously set out to accomplish – take over the realms and claim it as their own. Both were right hand men to 2 powerful overlords, who have since been defeated and thus causing the respective sorcerers to go into exile. However, a chance meeting between the sorcerers results in them forming a pack to take over the realms. But, before they set out to do so, they must first eliminate 2 very powerful forces, all of which is elaborated in a finely done opening FMV in the game.
When you first play the game, you can’t help but be transfixed with the character models in the game. Maybe it’s just me, but I love the way they all look (i.e. bodybuilders and fitness models)! The characters are colorful, and look awesome!
The arenas are all in 3D now, and not (as co creator Ed Boon stated) “just portraits”. The arenas are colorful and large.
Nevertheless, the main aspect of the game which has received the most overhaul, has been the gameplay. Fans of the series will instantly realize that the ‘run’ feature has been removed, and the characters no longer have 4-5 special moves at their disposal. Why this is so is questionable, but each fighter has a plethora of fighting moves and combos, which is all represented by (real life) fighting styles. Each fighter has 2 fighting styles, and 1 weapon style, and can be easily transitioned with the press of the L1 button. A chain combo can sometimes incorporate all 3 styles to be executed.
Furthermore, the fighters (sadly) only have 1 fatality each, and another missing aspect from the game are the infamous level (or stage) fatalities.
Aside from the regular arcade fighting mode, there is now an added ‘Konquest’ mode, which, although story based, is pretty much a practice mode for all characters, albeit in a fun way.
The game also incorporates a ‘kurrency’ system, in that you obtain money (or koins) when you play arcade mode and konquest mode. These ‘koins’ can be used in to purchase arenas, combatants, extra outfits, videos and renders which are all unlockable in what is know as ‘the Krypt’. There is also minigames in arcade mode to add to the fun factor. One is a returning minigame from MK1, i.e. ‘test your might’, and an MK style ‘coin in a cup’ game called ‘test your sight’. Each of these minigames have increasing difficulty as you progress.
Other then that, the games offers a couple of movies, and even a theme song to promote the game, all of which are great additions for a fighting game.
In conclusion, as an MK fan, despite missing some elements like stage fatalities and additional fatalities or alities, the game still delivers, and is ideally a rebirth of an already great series!